You can now fly the Qatar Airways Qsuite in business class from Manchester Airport

Qatar Airways is giving Manchester and the north a Valentine’s present in the form of its excellent Qsuite business class seat.  From 14th February, Qsuite is scheduled to fly on at least one daily service between Manchester and Doha starting with QR27/QR28.

From 1st March this is set expand with QR21/QR22, which means that two of the three daily flights will have HfP’s favourite business class seat and service as voted on by you in the HfP Travel & Loyalty Awards 2019.

Qsuite was the first business class seat to have a door and, arguably, is still the best.  You can read Rob’s recent review of Qsuite here.

The only catch is that Qatar Airways has a reputation for last minute aircraft changes which means that you can never quite be certain what you’ll get.  Nevertheless this is a win for anyone who prefers flying from Manchester, as you’ll be able to experience a genuinely excellent product.

If you want to find out more about Qsuite, there is a special section on the Qatar Airways website here.

If you want to know about other Avios redemption ideas from Manchester, this HfP article looks at Avios flights from UK regional airports.

Qatar Airways sale extended by 48 hours

The Qatar Airways sale was due to end on Monday, but it has been extended by two days.  You now have until tonight (Wednesday) to book

Qatar Airways has some excellent deals if you are willing to start outside the UK – check the list in this article to see if you can save even more money by flying from Stockholm, Oslo or the many other European starting points.

There are a lot of other special offers linked to the sale, including:

• Double Qmiles if you choose to credit to Qatar Privilege Club instead of British Airways Executive Club
• Very low-cost Doha stopovers for up to four nights
• Upgrades at the Oryx Airport Hotel
• 25% off lounge access in Doha if it is not included in your ticket
• 20% off excess baggage

Full details are on the sale website here.  If you are booking for flights from a European city, remember that the sale will end at midnight local time.

If you don’t have a credit card with 0% foreign exchange fees, your best option for paying for flights starting outside the UK is American Express Preferred Rewards Gold which offers triple points – 3 per £1 – when you book flight tickets in a foreign currency.  This is because the transaction triggers the ‘double points for airline spend’ and the ‘double points for foreign spend’ bonuses.  Our review of Amex Gold is here.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.